Talk about the series here. Please no PBP in this thread. Unless otherwise noted all games are on CSN-H (for about 40% I guess). 9-2 C.J. Wilson, LHP vs. Brad Peacock, RHP 7:10 9-3 Jered Weaver, RHP vs. Collin McHugh, RHP 7:10
WL Peacock may go 5 innings tonight, but we have had success against Wilson his past two starts. Weaver threw a one run shut out and then gave up 5 in 5 before that... no idea. I say we split and figure I give Peacock the win... no clue why. Here's to the Lawless era.
Hopefully we can be playoff spoilers. Now is a great opportunity for our young players to build some confidence, especially against our "rivals"
Will be curious to see the lineups.... will Marrisnick be in CF (like he should be)? Will Fowler be batting leadoff? Any changes from the norm are likely what the front office "wanted", and what Bo refused to do.
I think they'll be shifting on every single freaking batter... hell, we may even see more radical shifts with more infielders or more outfielders. One thing I'm sure we won't see is Tony Sipp playing the OF so that Bo can bring him back in later.
LF Robbie Grossman (S) 2B Jose Altuve (R) CF Dexter Fowler (S) DH Chris Carter (R) C Jason Castro (L) 3B Matt Dominguez (R) RF Jake Marisnick (R) 1B J. Singleton (L) SS Gregorio Petit (R) Not much change except leaving Singleton in against Wilson.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Astros lineup: LF Grossman 2B Altuve CF Fowler DH Carter C Castro 3B Dominguez RF Marisnick 1B Singleton SS Petit P Peacock</p>— Brian McTaggart (@brianmctaggart) <a href="https://twitter.com/brianmctaggart/status/506905217804550144">September 2, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> Nothing terribly interesting. Fowler in front of Carter and Singleton dropped.
But Singleton being in the lineup at all, against a lefty, is something. Fowler still playing CF is disappointing, but not earth-shattering (maybe they're going to "ease" their moves in as to not make it too obvious).
maybe Bo was actually using the lineups that Luhnow told him to, but was throwing a fit about it and they got tired of it?
Apparently the Oakland series was the "last straw" (whatever that expression means). Somebody look up the lineups, and the starting pitchers, and see if there are any patterns that were "off".
It's probably not so much lineup stuff but if it is, like I say he may have been doing what he was told and throwing a fit. We will not likely ever know exactly what was going on. Just hope it all works out in the long run
Seeing Everett makes me reminisce. Greatest double play turned in Astros history. <iframe src='http://m.mlb.com/shared/video/embed/embed.html?content_id=20031989&topic_id=6479266&width=400&height=224&property=mlb' width='400' height='224' frameborder='0'>Your browser does not support iframes.</iframe>
Grossman was the best player in the Wandy trade Luhnow made. He does walk a lot, and is the type the advanced stats they use could love.
The team as a whole is walking more this year, the moneyball model is slowly taking hold. After being one of the least walking teams for quite some time we are up to 12th in the ML. Unfortunately we are still striking out a ton to get those walks. Hopefully guys like Singleton and Grossman can start finding a way to get walks more efficiently next year.
A lot of the guys who are walking a lot are also the guys who are striking out a lot. Would be interesting to see the number of K's looking and K's swinging. I would guess that we have a lot of K's looking, especially by those who are taking a lot of the walks. Would be interesting to see what our swing/look rate is on 3-2 pitches. I'm sure all of that info is available somewhere
Did ashby get fired too ? The best part about watching the game tonight is not hearing Ashby complain about insignificant details the entire 9 innings . Blum and Brown are working well together.